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| Guthrie out dueled Time Hudson. Photo Credit: Kelley L. Cox/ USA Today Sports |
Jeremy Guthrie pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning, which helped propel the Royals to a 3-2 win over the Giants in Game 3 of the World Series.
By: Michael Hanley
The victory gives Kansas City their first lead in this World Series at 2-1.
Kansas City stuck to their formula for success in this postseason tonight: air tight defense, tremendous pitching and enough offense to keep the Giants at bay. It has been a familiar script that KC has become king at figuring out how to get close wins like tonight's one run affair.
They have in someway outdone the Giants at their own game. The way the Royals are winning games are very similar to how San Francisco has played through this postseason to get to their third World series in five years.
Lorenzo Cain started the scoring for KC as he grounded out to shortstop, bringing home Alcides Escobar to give themselves a 1-0 lead in the first inning. It was of great comfort to starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie to have that early lead to work with especially against a team he has struggled to get through in the past in the Giants. It also highlighted how the Royals could manufacture a run and not rely just on stolen bases or the home run ball to generate offense.
Both Guthrie and San Francisco starter Tim Hudson would settle into a pitcher's duel as each one put up zero after zero. It looked for a while like that one run Kansas City scored in the first inning would possibly be enough especially with their dominant bullpen waiting in the wings. That would change in the 6th inning for both pitchers.
The offense returned in the 6th inning with the Royals scratching for two crucial runs to chase Hudson out of the game. The first run came courtesy of Alex Gordon who doubled home Escobar to make it 2-0 Royals at the time. It was a a lead that felt more like 4-0 the way the KC pitching was throwing. The second run would come off the bat of Eric Hosmer, who had an RBI single that brought around Gordon to make it 3-0 KC.
The Giants would not go quietly into the night though as they would show their textbook fight and will to get back into the game in the bottom of the inning. It would start with Michael Morse would doubled to left field to score Brandon Crawford to make it 3-1 KC and get the crowd back into the game.Buster Posey who has struggle din this World Series, had an RBI ground out to score Morse and make it 3-2 Royals. San Francisco had given themselves new life in this game.
The bullpen of the Royals again would shut the door on the Giants as they were able to get through the last four innings to preserve the win for the visitors.
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